The Ben Shapiro Show - Turkish Non-Delight | Ep. 875

00:00:00.000 President Trump maybe abandoned Syria to the Turks, but not without a few parting Twitter shots.

00:00:05.000 Courts debate whether to force the release of President Trump's tax returns, and Elizabeth Warren takes command of the 2020 Democratic race.

00:00:12.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show, sponsored by ExpressVPN.

00:00:15.000 Protect your online privacy today at expressvpn.com slash Ben.

00:00:19.000 Oh man, there's a lot to get to today.

00:00:26.000 So let's just jump right in.

00:00:28.000 First, this situation in northern Syria is at the very least deeply puzzling.

00:00:33.000 It is morally troubling.

00:00:35.000 It's pretty awful all the way through.

00:00:37.000 Here is CNN reporting.

00:00:38.000 In a remarkable announcement late on Sunday night, the White House said that the United States forces in northern Syria would move aside in advance of a planned Turkish military offensive.

00:00:46.000 The move marks a major shift in U.S.

00:00:48.000 foreign policy, effectively gives Turkey the green light to attack U.S.-backed Kurdish forces, which would make, in just the latest time that we have betrayed the Kurds, obviously the United States has repeatedly told the Kurds that they were our allies and that we were working with them, only to put them in a situation where they were basically screwed.

00:01:05.000 That happened during the Gulf War in 1991, when George H.W.

00:01:09.000 Bush called for the Iraqi military and Iraqi people to throw out Saddam Hussein, and the Iraqi Kurds in northern Iraq then actually stood up and tried to do that.

00:01:17.000 At which point, Saddam Hussein basically gassed them and mowed them down, and the United States did nearly nothing about any of that.

00:01:24.000 During the late 1990s, during the Clinton administration, the Clinton administration basically armed the Turks so that they could go ahead and kill a bunch of the Kurds on the Turkish border.

00:01:33.000 During the Iraq war in 2003, There were moves to help the Kurds and then the Kurds were basically left to their own devices.

00:01:41.000 The Kurds also were targeted by ISIS.

00:01:43.000 So this is just the latest iteration of a common pattern which is that we all sound off when it's time to help the Kurds and then the minute that it becomes not time to help the Kurds everybody runs screaming for the exits and that's just horrible every way you slice it.

00:01:56.000 There is no rationale not only for not actually allowing the Kurds to defend themselves here and providing them the resources to do so considering they have been Our most consistent ally in that region of the world fighting against ISIS, fighting against Saddam Hussein, fighting against the Iranian Shia militias.

00:02:12.000 Not only that, but helping out the Turks is a horrible idea because the Turkish government right now is run by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who happens to be a dictator, and an incredibly repressive dictator at that, who has jailed hundreds of thousands of political opponents, who has made clear his desire to act brutally and violently toward the Kurds.

00:02:33.000 But President Trump has been taken in by Erdogan before.

00:02:36.000 He's had these sort of warm relations with Erdogan in terms of phone calls at the very least.

00:02:40.000 According to CNN, following a phone call between U.S.

00:02:44.000 President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the White House said that Turkey would soon begin a military offensive and U.S.

00:02:50.000 forces would not be involved in the operation.

00:02:53.000 Turkey will soon be moving forward with its long-planned operation into northern Syria, a statement said.

00:02:58.000 armed forces will not support or be involved in the operation, and U.S.

00:02:58.000 The U.S.

00:03:01.000 forces, having defeated the ISIS territorial caliphate, will no longer be in the immediate area.

00:03:06.000 Now, this is exactly the sort of foreign policy that there are some on the right who definitely want to see pursued.

00:03:10.000 And there are some people who are on the right who tend to be in the more sort of Pat Buchanan, isolationist camp, who basically suggest the U.S.

00:03:16.000 has no business in that part Well, that's all fun and games until it turns out that you're allowing the Turks and the Turkish government to slaughter the Kurds who have allied with the United States to take on a common foe in ISIS. 0.63

00:03:28.000 The White House added that Turkey would now be responsible for all captured ISIS fighters who are currently being held by U.S.-backed Kurdish forces in northern Syria.

00:03:35.000 In other words, they're fine with the Turks going in. 0.99

00:03:39.000 Presumably wiping out the Kurds, or at least attacking the Kurds, and then taking control of ISIS prisoners.

00:03:44.000 But, as we've been saying for years on this program, there are very few forces in the region that actually had an interest in seeing ISIS completely wiped out.

00:03:53.000 The Turks wanted ISIS there so that they could use it as an excuse to cross over into Syria. 0.90

00:03:57.000 The Syrian government wanted ISIS there so they could use it as an excuse as to why they should remain in power.

00:04:01.000 The Iranians wanted ISIS there for the same reason as the Syrians. 0.96

00:04:05.000 Only the Kurds, really, and freedom-fighting Syrians were anti-ISIS, and yet now we, I guess, are handing leadership role over to Erdogan as though he's a good faith actor in all of this, and is not simply seeking to wipe out the Kurds and create a quote-unquote buffer zone for Turkey?

00:04:23.000 The White House added that as of last month, 1,000 U.S.

00:04:26.000 troops were operating in northeastern Syria, so there was just this small trigger force, and that was preventing all of this from happening.

00:04:32.000 Presumably, that is no longer going to be the case.

00:04:34.000 Sunday's statement did not specify if this constituted a full withdrawal of personnel from the country.

00:04:39.000 Erdogan confirmed on Monday, according to CNN, that U.S.

00:04:42.000 troops had begun withdrawing from northeastern Syria.

00:04:44.000 He announced on Saturday that Turkey had, quote, completed our preparations and action plan and was ready to launch a ground and air operation east of the Euphrates River with the goal of establishing, quote unquote, peace by clearing the region of terrorists.

00:04:56.000 Turkey's operation is aimed at clearing the U.S.-backed Kurdish militia, the People's Protection Unit, away from Turkey's border, because presumably an attempt to broaden Kurdistan would include some sort of incursions into Turkish territory that would be a part of the region.

00:05:11.000 There have been long-standing territorial and border disputes between the Kurds and the Turks.

00:05:15.000 Ankara, which is the capital of Turkey, regards the YPG as a terrorist group affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which has fought the Turkish state for more than three decades, but the U.S.

00:05:24.000 backs the YPG and credits the Kurds for helping to defeat ISIS in Syria.

00:05:27.000 So this one is, thanks for all the help with ISIS, guys. 0.96

00:05:29.000 Also, we're gonna let the Kurds come in and wipe you out now. 1.00

00:05:32.000 Turkey has been working with the U.S. 0.92

00:05:34.000 to establish safe zones that run along the Turkey-Syria border, but Anadolu reports that while Turkey welcomes the joint patrols, it has also said the U.S.

00:05:41.000 is not doing enough to set up the safe zone properly.

00:05:43.000 Presumably, the safe zones will be for Syrian refugees who have been swamping Turkey. 0.99

00:05:48.000 More than a million Syrian refugees during the Syrian Civil War have moved into Turkey.

00:05:53.000 Erdogan expressed frustration with President Trump and the U.S.

00:05:57.000 military's failure to implement an agreement between the two nations, according to a readout of a call released by the Turkish presidency, and the two leaders agreed to meet in Washington next month at Trump's invitation.

00:06:06.000 Now, you remember last time Erdogan showed up, his thugs ended up beating up a bunch of anti-regime protesters in Washington, D.C., and it created an actual international incident.

00:06:16.000 The buffer zone, the U.S. 0.93

00:06:17.000 calls it a security mechanism, would be part of a bid to prevent a military incursion into the area that would target Syrian Kurdish groups.

00:06:24.000 So presumably the United States is saying, okay, we'll set up these safe zones, but we don't have enough troops to prevent the Turks from actually going in and doing what it is they see fit to do. 0.95

00:06:33.000 According to CNN, Trump's decision to allow Erdogan to move forward with the operation and to move U.S.

00:06:37.000 forces out of the area goes against U.S.

00:06:39.000 officials.

00:06:40.000 Their efforts to dissuade Turkey from carrying out a military intervention.

00:06:44.000 A Pentagon spokesman named Sean Robertson said, quote, any uncoordinated military operation by Turkey would be of grave concern.

00:06:50.000 It would undermine our shared interest of a secure northeast Syria and the enduring defeat of ISIS.

00:06:55.000 On Monday, a Pentagon spokesperson said the Department of Defense actually did not even endorse the planned operations.

00:07:01.000 So Trump is overruling his own defense department here.

00:07:04.000 The Department of Defense made clear to Turkey, as did the president, we do not endorse a Turkish operation in northern Syria.

00:07:09.000 So apparently Trump has said he doesn't want it.

00:07:10.000 But what's actually going to stop the Turks, really? 0.90

00:07:13.000 Does anybody actually think the United States is going to do anything to prevent all of this?

00:07:17.000 On Saturday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters, quote, we've made clear this conflict should not be militarized.

00:07:22.000 But a U.S. official familiar with operations in Syria told CNN it is, quote unquote, very likely that Turkey will try something soon.

00:07:29.000 They said that Ankara, the capital of Turkey, will start with a limited incursion to establish Turkish patrol bases on the Syrian side of the border.

00:07:38.000 And then eventually, when the world's attention turns away from this issue, then they will launch into trying to clean up, meaning clean out and kill members of the PKK.

00:07:48.000 In a second, we'll get to the fact that this has actually created some blowback on the right side of the aisle, as well it should, because frankly, it's terrible, terrible, horrible, not moral policy.

00:07:56.000 We'll get to that in just a second.

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00:09:03.000 Okay, so Senator Lindsey Graham has tweeted, The decision to abandon our Kurdish allies and turn Syria over to Russia, Iran, and Turkey It's a shot in the arm to the bad guys.

00:09:14.000 devastating for the good guys.

00:09:16.000 Brett McGurk is the former U.S. envoy to the anti-ISIS coalition.

00:09:19.000 He ripped into Trump.

00:09:20.000 He said he was, quote, not a commander-in-chief and, quote, makes impulsive decisions with no knowledge or deliberation.

00:09:26.000 He says he blusters and leaves our allies exposed when adversaries call his bluff or he confronts a hard phone call.

00:09:32.000 Nikki Haley, the former U.S. 0.98

00:09:34.000 ambassador to the U.N.

00:09:35.000 under Trump, reiterated on Twitter that Kurdish fighters were, quote, instrumental in our successful fight against ISIS in Syria and added that the U.S.

00:09:42.000 must always have the back of our allies if we expect them to have our back.

00:09:46.000 And obviously the Kurds are not exactly sanguine about all of this.

00:09:52.000 They are very upset because they are seeing the possibility of actual violence done to them by the Turks with the United States backing off of all of this.

00:10:01.000 The Kurds, of course, are telling the Pentagon that this is insanity. 0.70

00:10:05.000 That this is just... that there's no rationale for it.

00:10:09.000 Because, frankly, there is no rationale for it other than the general isolationist rationale of the United States should not be involved anywhere around the world even to help people who helped us wipe out people who are trying to murder Americans and Westerners around the world.

00:10:23.000 Well, this has prompted Mitch McConnell to sound off.

00:10:26.000 Again, you know things are bad when the Republican Party starts to tell President Trump that he needs to cut this nonsense out.

00:10:31.000 Mitch McConnell sounded off.

00:10:32.000 He released a statement.

00:10:34.000 He said, In January, a supermajority of the U.S.

00:10:36.000 Senate voted for an amendment that expressed bipartisan concern about the continuing threat posed by ISIS and Al Qaeda in Syria, appreciation of the long-term American security interests in Syria and the region, and support for a continued military presence in northeastern Syria.

00:10:50.000 The conditions that produced this bipartisan vote still exist today.

00:10:52.000 While the physical caliphate has been removed, ISIS and Al Qaeda remain dangerous forces in Syria and the ongoing Syrian civil war...

00:11:02.000 Now I will note that all the members of the media who are ripping on Trump over this, they seemed a lot more sanguine when Barack Obama was creating fake red lines about gassing Syrians and then he proceeded to pull out from Syria and hand the whole thing over to the Russians.

00:11:22.000 With that said, is it any better if Trump is doing something similar?

00:11:24.000 Of course not.

00:11:25.000 It would increase the risk that ISIS and other terrorist groups regroup.

00:11:28.000 According to McConnell, I urge the president to exercise American leadership, to keep together our multinational coalition to defeat ISIS, and prevent significant conflict between our NATO ally Turkey and our local Syrian counterterrorism partners.

00:11:39.000 Major new conflict between Turkey and our partners in Syria would seriously risk damaging Turkey's ties to the U.S., and causing greater isolation for Turkey on the world stage.

00:11:48.000 Turkey is an Islamist force. 0.94

00:11:50.000 They have been, unfortunately, for the last 15 to 20 years under Erdogan.

00:11:53.000 Erdogan turned what was a secular state into an Islamist state, or at least a state moving in an Islamist direction.

00:11:59.000 They have backed Hamas. 0.83

00:12:00.000 They have backed terrorist groups.

00:12:01.000 They have attempted to wipe out allies of the United States. 1.00

00:12:05.000 The fact that President Trump is Apparently, caving before Erdogan is frankly pathetic. 0.80

00:12:12.000 McConnell says, Apparently, the concerns about an ISIS comeback are quite serious, especially because one of the things that would happen if the Kurds were to withdraw is who exactly is going to be running the prisons that are holding tens of thousands of ISIS fighters? 0.94

00:12:34.000 The Turks? 0.97

00:12:35.000 How's that gonna go well?

00:12:37.000 The answer is, it probably will not.

00:12:38.000 Mitt Romney has sounded off on this as well.

00:12:42.000 He said, quote, the president's decision to abandon our Kurd allies in the face of an assault by Turkey is a betrayal.

00:12:47.000 It says that America is an unreliable ally.

00:12:49.000 It facilitates ISIS resurgence. 0.95

00:12:51.000 It presages another humanitarian disaster.

00:12:54.000 So when you've got McConnell and Romney on the same page, it is fair to say that there is pretty solid opposition to President Trump's move right here.

00:13:02.000 At the State Department, a senior official authorized to brief reporters on the condition of anonymity denied suggestions that Trump had endorsed a Turkish incursion.

00:13:10.000 He said, we do not support this operation in any way, shape, or form, but the timing of the Turks basically announcing an incursion and the timing of President Trump announcing we're going to pull out is obviously not a giant coincidence.

00:13:20.000 There's been a lot of talk about President Trump ramping up trade with Turkey and friendliness between the United States and Turkey.

00:13:28.000 According to a State Department official, the original call between Trump and Erdogan originated as a conversation about the air defense issue and economic cooperation, and then Erdogan raised going into northeastern Syria, claiming that the safe zone mechanism that was set up and was being executed was not meeting his needs and that he wanted to do a unilateral operation. claiming that the safe zone mechanism that was set up Thank you.

00:13:48.000 But apparently, according to the State Department official, there was no specific indication that he would push the button.

00:13:53.000 We still don't know in the end what he's going to do.

00:13:55.000 Okay, but if you don't know what he's going to do, and then you signal that we're going to pull out, obviously that signal is going to be taken as a sign of weakness by Erdogan.

00:14:03.000 So, that's obviously some...

00:14:06.000 Bad, bad policy.

00:14:07.000 Now, President Trump seems to be backing off of the policy.

00:14:09.000 So this is the thing that I don't really understand about the perspective on President Trump that suggests that criticizing President Trump weakens President Trump.

00:14:18.000 I don't think that that is correct.

00:14:19.000 If you are criticizing him not to undermine his presidency, but to point out when he is making a mistake.

00:14:24.000 Because President Trump Does have the capacity to shift policy.

00:14:27.000 We have seen him do it before.

00:14:29.000 When he steps over a line, if the right is willing to call him out, then he steps back over the line on the right side of the line.

00:14:35.000 We'll get to that in one second.

00:14:36.000 President Trump seeming to walk all of this back.

00:14:40.000 Get into that in just one second.

00:14:41.000 First, let me tell you something.

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00:14:50.000 Is to not sleep.

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00:15:51.000 Okay, so.

00:15:52.000 Many people on the right are very upset about this.

00:15:55.000 Obviously, you're starting to see some on the right defend President Trump.

00:16:00.000 President Trump then sent out a bizarre series of tweets walking this thing back.

00:16:05.000 And again, this is just proof, positive, that when Trump does something wrong and you call him out on it, he is capable of hearing it and changing in the most bizarre possible way, apparently.

00:16:13.000 So President Trump tweeted this one out, and this is This is a classic Trump tweet.

00:16:17.000 I mean, this is the full Trump, man.

00:16:19.000 Here he is.

00:16:20.000 Here he is.

00:16:40.000 has done far more than anyone could have ever expected, including the capture of 100% of the ISIS caliphate.

00:16:45.000 It is time now for others in the region, some of great wealth, to protect their own territory.

00:16:53.000 Okay, well that last part right there about how he expects Turkey to maintain the ISIS fighters in custody.

00:17:02.000 He's not saying a lot about the protection of the Kurds who helped us defeat ISIS right there.

00:17:06.000 Is he?

00:17:07.000 President Trump then said this is all part of America first foreign policy says we'll fight where it is to our benefit and only fight to win.

00:17:13.000 Okay, but there's also a point of American foreign policy and that's called deterrence.

00:17:18.000 And one of the reasons that we keep, for example, a trigger force in South Korea is to deter the North Koreans from invading South Korea. 0.90

00:17:25.000 Why?

00:17:25.000 Well, some people would say, well, we should get out of there.

00:17:27.000 What interest do we have in Korea?

00:17:29.000 We have an interest in there not being a hot war between North Korea and South Korea that draws in China and then forces the intervention of other powers, including the United States.

00:17:38.000 See, sometimes an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of brutality on the other end.

00:17:44.000 And pulling out and signaling to the Turks that you're going to do so It's obviously not good policy. 0.82

00:17:49.000 You do have to love the snidely whiplash sort of language right there from President Trump in his great and unmatched wisdom.

00:17:56.000 It's like Jafar in Aladdin.

00:17:59.000 His great and unmatched wisdom.

00:18:00.000 Like, what is that?

00:18:01.000 You will not bow before a salt and you will cower before a sorcerer.

00:18:04.000 Like, what is that?

00:18:06.000 Sorry.

00:18:07.000 My great and unmatched wisdom? 0.95

00:18:09.000 I would totally destroy and obliterate the economy of Turkey. 1.00

00:18:12.000 I've done it before.

00:18:13.000 I mean, it is true that he has obviously had significant impact on the economy of Iran, so presumably he's threatening sanctions on Turkey five minutes after telling Turkey that he would like for them to enter that buffer zone and then...

00:18:26.000 We'll pull out or something.

00:18:27.000 It's all confused.

00:18:28.000 It is all confusing.

00:18:29.000 Consistency-informed policy actually matters.

00:18:31.000 Now look, when it comes to President Trump and his sort of fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants policy, I've generally not been supremely critical.

00:18:39.000 The reason being, I don't think that you necessarily have to have a plan.

00:18:42.000 I think that the constitutional checks and boundaries prevent an impulsive president from doing too much damage.

00:18:48.000 That is not nearly as true when it comes to foreign policy.

00:18:50.000 The reason it's not as true when it comes to foreign policy is because an impulse can sometimes create a similarly countervailing impulse on the other side.

00:18:58.000 A weakness can sometimes be taken as a measure that somebody should do something to you.

00:19:03.000 I take it as an example of the first Gulf War.

00:19:07.000 There were high-ranking negotiating officials inside the H.W.

00:19:09.000 Bush administration who allegedly signaled to the Saddam Hussein regime that if Hussein were to walk into Kuwait, the United States would basically do nothing, at which point Hussein said, okay, fine, so I'll walk into Kuwait, and then the United States was at war.

00:19:23.000 I'm glad that President Trump walked it back within 24 hours, and this is why people should criticize him when he deserves the critique.

00:19:29.000 There's, again, this bizarre belief that you can never criticize President Trump, that he can't take it.

00:19:34.000 The man's fairly tough. 0.99

00:19:35.000 You may have noticed he's taken an awful amount of abuse and crap over the last several years. 0.98

00:19:39.000 I think he can handle some people saying that his Turkish policy is a bad idea, especially when he is kowtowing to one of the worst dictators I mean, Erdogan really is terrible. 0.96

00:19:49.000 He really has taken Turkey from what was a burgeoning Western country back into an Islamist country run by a regime that does not care about human rights or freedom and threatens its neighbors. 0.99

00:20:01.000 It's...

00:20:02.000 It's really bad.

00:20:03.000 It's really bad.

00:20:03.000 So I'm glad that President Trump seems to be walking this thing back, at least.

00:20:07.000 But that sort of temporary boo-boo has raised hackles everywhere.

00:20:11.000 And I will point out that when it comes to people on the left who are suddenly finding their spine when it comes to criticizing American foreign policy in Syria, welcome to the club.

00:20:20.000 It's wonderful to see you here.

00:20:21.000 I'm so glad that you could finally make it after years of you pretending that Barack Obama's foreign policy in Syria was a symptom of great genius, that his fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants foreign policy, handing over power in Syria to Vladimir Putin and the Iranians, that that was actually a measure of his broad-heartedness and genius. 0.62

00:20:37.000 Glad to welcome you to the club where it turns out that a predictable American foreign policy is useful in this arena of the world.

00:20:45.000 I welcome people like Thomas Friedman and Paul Krugman.

00:20:48.000 Paul Krugman tweeted out, there are only a few reasons why Trump would do this.

00:20:51.000 One would be he's trying to kowtow to Russia.

00:20:53.000 One is that he's impulsive.

00:20:54.000 Okay, yeah, it's funny how Paul Krugman didn't have all that much to say when Barack Obama was drawing fake red lines about the use of chemical weapons against Syrian citizens and then immediately went silent when that red line disappeared and Barack Obama was like, hey, what if we just give this thing over to my good friend Vlad?

00:21:08.000 Give him some flexibility and now he'll help me in Syria.

00:21:11.000 And shortly thereafter, the rise of ISIS began.

00:21:16.000 That's not a defense of Trumpian policy.

00:21:19.000 It is to point out the hypocrisy of the left that apparently does not care about this stuff unless there's an R next to the name of the person who is running the executive branch of the United States government.

00:21:30.000 Okay, meanwhile...

00:21:32.000 The impeachment stuff continues to burgeon.

00:21:34.000 The Democrats have a new angle because every 30 seconds or so they have to come up with a new angle because it seems like the angles they've taken so far are insufficient.

00:21:42.000 So now they're going after President Trump's taxes.

00:21:44.000 We'll get to that in just one second.

00:21:45.000 First, let me tell you something.

00:21:47.000 Last night, as I've been saying, didn't sleep great.

00:21:49.000 Okay?

00:21:50.000 I am not in my bed at home.

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00:22:47.000 Okay, meanwhile, in other news, President Trump's taxes are apparently now the subject of a massive legal dispute.

00:22:55.000 According to the New York Times yesterday, a federal judge on Monday rejected President Trump's efforts to shield his tax returns from Manhattan state prosecutors, calling the president's argument that he was immune from criminal investigation, quote, repugnant to the nation's governmental structure and constitutional values.

00:23:11.000 I mean, I thought that we had already litigated whether the president is immune from criminal proceedings.

00:23:18.000 President Clinton was brought up, well he wasn't brought up criminally, he was brought up civilly I suppose.

00:23:23.000 He's not immune to civil suit.

00:23:24.000 It is a matter of controversy over whether the president is able to be prosecuted in state or federal court while he's the president.

00:23:31.000 There was that famous DOJ

00:23:34.000 office of legal counsel opinion that sort of suggested that you can't prosecute the president federally while he is sitting and it would be kind of bizarre if state governments could prosecute the president of the united states because then presumably they could they'd always have this sort of check on the presidential power but if the president were to hit somebody with his car could he be prosecuted in the state of new york if he actually shot somebody on fifth avenue could he be prosecuted in the state of new york it'd be sort of weird to argue that he couldn't be prosecuted in the state of new york if he just shot somebody on the street

00:24:03.000 The decision from Judge Victor Morero of Federal District Court in Manhattan was the first significant ruling in a case that could require Trump to hand over his tax returns and ultimately test the limits of presidential power.

00:24:13.000 The judge dismissed a lawsuit that had been filed by Trump.

00:24:15.000 He was seeking to block a subpoena for eight years of his personal and corporate tax returns.

00:24:19.000 Now, listen, is this a fishing expedition?

00:24:21.000 Yes, it is a fishing expedition.

00:24:23.000 There's no question it is a fishing expedition.

00:24:25.000 The Attorney General of the State of New York openly made clear the day that she was elected that she had the Trump Organization and President Trump in her sights, which is horrible prosecutorial behavior.

00:24:37.000 You are supposed to prosecute crime.

00:24:38.000 You are not supposed to prosecute people.

00:24:40.000 You identify the crime, you investigate the crime, and then you prosecute the crime.

00:24:44.000 You don't say, you know who I don't like?

00:24:45.000 That Trumpian fellow.

00:24:47.000 It's so funny, all the same people who are saying that it is selective and malicious for President Trump to ask the Ukrainians to look into Joe Biden, despite widespread allegations, at least allegations, whether they're verified or not, of corruption by Joe Biden and Hunter Biden, his son, in Ukraine.

00:25:04.000 The same people are saying, well, that's a targeted prosecution.

00:25:06.000 They are totally fine with a targeted prosecution when the target of the prosecution happens to have a name rhyming with Donald Trump.

00:25:13.000 The judge dismissed that lawsuit.

00:25:15.000 The Manhattan District Attorney demanded the records in late August as part of an investigation into hush money payments made in the run-up to the 2016 presidential elections.

00:25:24.000 Now that, of course, has been the culmination of a years-long effort to get President Trump's tax returns.

00:25:30.000 For the moment, his tax returns remain protected.

00:25:32.000 His lawyers quickly appealed to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan.

00:25:35.000 They agreed to temporarily delay enforcement of the subpoena while considering arguments in the case.

00:25:41.000 Judge Marrero systematically dismantled the president's arguments.

00:25:45.000 that investigating a sitting president was unconstitutional, according to the New York Times.

00:25:48.000 The judge said Mr. Trump's lawyers were, in essence, arguing that the president, along with his family, associates, and companies, were above the law.

00:25:56.000 He says this court finds aspects of such a doctrine repugnant to the nation's governmental structure and constitutional values.

00:26:01.000 This, of course, would be a Bill Clinton-appointed judge.

00:26:04.000 The dispute pits the Manhattan District Attorney, Cyrus Vance, against the president and his DOJ, and has raised a host of issues that have not been tested in the courts.

00:26:12.000 The Constitution does not actually say whether presidents can be charged with a crime while in office.

00:26:17.000 The Supreme Court has not, in fact, ruled on the issue.

00:26:20.000 So, this is certainly not going to be the last word in the case.

00:26:26.000 Look, I think President Trump should have revealed his tax returns way back during the 2016 campaign.

00:26:32.000 I have no real rationale as to why he didn't do that.

00:26:35.000 With that said, is the insane focus on Trump's tax returns something that behooves prosecutorial authorities?

00:26:44.000 Probably not.

00:26:45.000 Probably not.

00:26:46.000 Meanwhile, in other impeachment news, I just have to point out the irony of Hillary Clinton. 0.98

00:26:50.000 So Hillary Clinton, who is still wandering the woods of Upstate New York, sadly, pretending that she is the president of the United States, like Miss Haversham, walking around in her old wedding dress. 0.58

00:27:02.000 Hillary Clinton, she was on the TVs yesterday, and she suggested that calling on foreign adversaries for assistance in campaigns goes to the heart of our sovereignty.

00:27:11.000 It threatens our sovereignty.

00:27:13.000 Here is the illustrious non-president Hillary Clinton.

00:27:16.000 When you have a president calling on foreign adversaries for assistance in his political campaigns, which he did in 2016, and which he is doing again, that goes right to the heart of our sovereignty as a nation, to our national security, in a way that is almost unimaginable.

00:27:39.000 I cannot imagine any other president ever even thinking about this.

00:27:45.000 Could you imagine a president, say, appealing to Chinese donors in the 1996 election and declassifying a bunch of nuclear secrets at the same time?

00:27:53.000 Because you were married to that one. 0.99

00:27:55.000 Could you imagine a presidential candidate maybe coordinating with the Ukrainian embassy to dig up dirt on the opponent?

00:28:02.000 Could you maybe imagine like a presidential candidate coordinating with foreign resources, including a former British spy who is apparently being fed intel from Russian governmental sources about their political opponents and then, you know, funneling that to your old administration and your buddies in the DOJ and the FBI?

00:28:18.000 Could you imagine anything like that?

00:28:19.000 I seem to be able to imagine something like that because it happened.

00:28:22.000 The gaslighting of this is what makes it so difficult.

00:28:26.000 As I said yesterday, as I talked about yesterday, when it comes to impeachment, one of the standards for impeachment is that it has to be clearly above and beyond other things that were not impeached before.

00:28:34.000 And the fact that Democrats seem to want to set a new standard that only applies to people who are not Democrats is pretty astonishing.

00:28:44.000 By the way, when it comes to impeachment, just to point out some of the media coverage, Brian Stalter over at CNN, he has a Reliable Sources newsletter, and he points out the country's leading news outlets are laying the groundwork for long-term coverage of the impeachment inquiry and all the potential fallout.

00:28:57.000 It is amazing how the media have resonated to any anti-Trump narrative they can find, whether you are talking about Dean Beckett of the New York Times openly acknowledging that the Trump-Russia thing was the focus of their last couple of years, And then stating that they were going to move into covering Trump racism, and now they're just moving straight on to impeachment.

00:29:14.000 Now you have Brian Stelter pointing out that all of these newspapers and all these organizations are hiring up and staffing up on the impeachment stuff.

00:29:21.000 So basically, as soon as the Democrats throw out a narrative, it is time to staff up on the reporting side to do all of their oppo research for them.

00:29:28.000 One of the convenient things about being a Democratic opposition researcher is you never actually have to work.

00:29:32.000 You can just read the front page of the New York Times, which will dig up whether Mitt Romney cut a gay kid's hair back in 1952.

00:29:38.000 It's really, really exciting stuff.

00:29:40.000 And we'll get to more of the new CNN hires.

00:29:43.000 CNN has hired some new people.

00:29:44.000 And it goes to show you exactly where CNN, the most trusted name in news, is coming from.

00:29:48.000 We'll get to that in just one moment.

00:29:50.000 First, let's talk about gun ownership.

00:29:52.000 So as you know, I'm a big fan of gun ownership.

00:29:54.000 This is not only because I've had personal safety issues.

00:29:57.000 It is also because you should exercise your Second Amendment rights.

00:30:01.000 Your Second Amendment rights are what protect your First Amendment rights and all of your other rights that are guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.

00:30:08.000 Every year in America, guns are used, apparently, over 2 million times in self-defense, according to certain studies.

00:30:12.000 The average self-defense legal case costs between $50,000 and $70,000 for the victim.

00:30:17.000 Which can be shocking, especially when you consider that these Americans were just defending themselves and their loved ones like you or I would.

00:30:23.000 Now, you think, okay, somebody comes in my house and I shoot them, that's the end of the story?

00:30:26.000 In many cases, not.

00:30:27.000 That's why I'm excited to introduce our new partnership with the U.S.

00:30:30.000 Concealed Carry Association.

00:30:31.000 The USCCA was founded in 2003 in response to the growing threats to Americans' rights, freedom, and ability to defend themselves.

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00:30:47.000 Plus, they have fantastic giveaways, like, for example, this month, They're giving away $1,000 to 19 lucky winners for free.

00:30:53.000 You can buy a SIG, a Glock, an AR.

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00:30:59.000 The USCCA just believes in helping protect responsible Americans.

00:30:59.000 There's no catch.

00:31:03.000 Again, gun ownership. 0.52

00:31:04.000 If you are a responsible American, you should learn to use a gun, you should know how to use a gun, and you should get a gun.

00:31:08.000 And now you have the opportunity to win one by texting WIN to 87222 to find out more and claim your entries.

00:31:13.000 That is WIN, W-I-N, to 87222.

00:31:15.000 Okay, we're gonna get to More on Impeachment Gate 2019 in just one second.

00:31:22.000 First, you have to go over to dailywire.com and subscribe.

00:31:24.000 So right now, let me just tell you, I could use a refreshing swig from this, The Leftist Tears, Hot or Cold Tumblr, if sadly we're not empty of leftist tears.

00:31:33.000 Why?

00:31:34.000 Well, because the fact is that We've been on break for a little while over the weekend.

00:31:38.000 I've been flying and all of that.

00:31:40.000 But don't worry, soon it will replenish.

00:31:41.000 You can have your own leftist-jeers tumbler for $99 a year. 0.97

00:31:45.000 And this will be a magical experience for you.

00:31:47.000 It will make sure that if the room is too warm, let's say, and you are desperately in need of a liquid to replenish yourself, that you can make this happen for yourself.

00:31:56.000 Go check it out over at dailywire.com right now.

00:31:58.000 $99 a year gets you the annual subscription.

00:32:01.000 You know the pitch.

00:32:02.000 Go do it.

00:32:02.000 We are the largest, fastest-growing conservative podcast and radio show in the nation.

00:32:06.000 All righty.

00:32:13.000 So, CNN has hired four new contributors, according to Brian Stelter, VB.

00:32:17.000 Very exciting stuff.

00:32:17.000 Who?

00:32:18.000 Well, Jeffrey Engel, a CNN presidential historian and the co-author of Impeachment in American History.

00:32:23.000 I can't imagine why they hired him.

00:32:24.000 Michael Gerhart, a CNN legal analyst and the author of several books, including The Federal Impeachment Process, A Constitutional and Historical Analysis, and a regular on CNN during the Clinton impeachment.

00:32:35.000 Ross Garber, a CNN legal analyst who represents four governors facing impeachment proceedings.

00:32:40.000 Everybody else is staffing up on the impeachment stuff as well.

00:32:42.000 Security analyst who's been part of the Post team breaking big stories about the whistleblower complained.

00:32:47.000 Everybody else is staffing up on the impeachment stuff as well.

00:32:51.000 So just very, very exciting stuff.

00:32:56.000 Now, the media are pointing out that very few Republicans are appearing on television to mount a defense of President Trump.

00:33:02.000 Part of that is because why would you?

00:33:04.000 So you can get beat up like Ron Johnson was by Chuck Todd?

00:33:07.000 Like, why exactly would you sign up for that?

00:33:09.000 It's amazing to me to watch how members of the media are like, We can't book a Republican to talk about this stuff. 0.99

00:33:14.000 Also, Republicans are the worst, and they're terrible, horrible people. 0.98

00:33:17.000 Yes, maybe it's because you believe the latter that you can't get the former. 1.00

00:33:20.000 That would be it.

00:33:21.000 But in other breaking impeachment-related news, the House has now allegedly subpoenaed White House budget office and Pentagon documents.

00:33:30.000 Now, whether those are formal subpoenas is unclear.

00:33:33.000 So as Andy McCarthy has pointed out in the last couple of weeks, the fact is that Democrats have been basically issuing requests to executive branch agencies for documents and then not issuing formal subpoenas.

00:33:45.000 A formal subpoena actually carries with it the threat of contempt.

00:33:48.000 A non-formal subpoena does not carry that.

00:33:50.000 It's basically just them pretending that they've subpoenaed something and then they can complain that it's being obstructed, even though usually you subpoena a document.

00:33:57.000 And then there's a negotiation that takes place over what exactly the documents are that are to be turned over.

00:34:01.000 So the House has now expanded its sprawling impeachment inquiry They've issued subpoenas to the Defense Department and OMB for documents that could solve lingering mysteries about whether Trump's decision to withhold security aid for Ukraine was tied to his efforts to pressure the government there to investigate his political rivals.

00:34:17.000 Now, in all likelihood, by the way, those documents are likely to show that the military aid was in fact tied to corruption concerns.

00:34:24.000 You really think?

00:34:25.000 I mean, by the way, if they come with a smoking gun here, They come with a smoking gun.

00:34:29.000 I just have my serious doubt that the Trump administration was sending notes to the Defense Department saying, go get Joe Biden or cut the aid.

00:34:37.000 I really don't think that, sign Donald J. Trump, I don't think that's where this is going.

00:34:43.000 Two senior American diplomats caught up in the scandal are scheduled to speak to investigators before the week is through.

00:34:48.000 A third, who is scheduled to be deposed on Monday, didn't show up.

00:34:52.000 But we'll show up later.

00:34:53.000 Lawmakers appeared to be in the final stages of arranging a highly secure interview with the anonymous CIA whistleblower.

00:34:57.000 Now again, I don't know why we're going to pretend that this CIA whistleblower has any new information.

00:35:03.000 What was in the complaint is now public.

00:35:04.000 And we know all of it.

00:35:06.000 And we have the transcript of the phone call.

00:35:07.000 So what is this person going to add?

00:35:09.000 The answer is presumably nothing, but this person will also probably demonstrate that they are a partisan Democrat, because in fact, it appears they're probably a partisan Democrat.

00:35:19.000 Now, does that actually undermine the validity of the complaint?

00:35:23.000 Not really.

00:35:24.000 I mean, we'll have to find out what the facts actually have to say about all of this.

00:35:27.000 this.

00:35:28.000 President Trump said, people understand it's a fraud, it's a scam, it's a witch hunt.

00:35:31.000 All we do is keep fighting for the American people because that's all I do.

00:35:35.000 And then he calls his own actions very terrific.

00:35:38.000 President Trump, I wish he'd been sometimes a Broadway producer because his raves for his own shows would have just been spectacular.

00:35:44.000 Senator Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio, chastised President Trump.

00:35:49.000 Trump, he said the president should not have raised the Biden issue on that call, period.

00:35:52.000 It's not appropriate for a president to engage a foreign government in an investigation of a political opponent.

00:35:57.000 Now, I tend to agree with that, although Rudy Giuliani's general point, which is, okay, well, what if that general political opponent happens to have committed a crime, right, that That's a real question.

00:36:10.000 The problem is that there may in fact be a disconnect between what Giuliani thought was happening in Ukraine and what Trump thought was happening in Ukraine and what was actually happening in Ukraine.

00:36:19.000 So Trump very well could have thought that there was corruption.

00:36:21.000 It's almost a mirror image of the Mueller report.

00:36:23.000 So, on the one hand, what you see in Mueller report land is a dual narrative.

00:36:28.000 The narrative of the left is that there is a good reason for opening the Mueller report, that there are serious suspicions about Trump and Russia, and just because the goods were not fully delivered does not mean that there is not accuracy to the suspicions in the first place.

00:36:41.000 On the right, people say, no, no, no, this thing was launched in bad faith.

00:36:44.000 It was obviously meant to go after Trump.

00:36:46.000 It was broadened out from Manafort to include President Trump.

00:36:48.000 The whole thing was a gotcha from the beginning.

00:36:51.000 Well, now we are seeing the exact same logic applied in reverse with regards to Ukraine and Biden.

00:36:55.000 Some people on the right, including the president, are saying, listen, I was interested in Ukrainian corruption and Joe Biden's name was obviously part of the story here.

00:37:04.000 Glenn Beck actually did an entire show about the timeline in Ukraine, and it is kind of suspicious.

00:37:10.000 I mean, when Biden got involved versus when his son was made the A member of the board of Burisma?

00:37:18.000 I mean, that timeline does look suspicious.

00:37:20.000 So Republicans are like, well, this thing was launched in good faith, and even if it comes up with nothing, that doesn't mean it was launched in bad faith.

00:37:25.000 Democrats are saying, no, no, no, it was totally launched in bad faith because Joe Biden is President Trump's political rival.

00:37:31.000 And the answer is, we'll have to wait and see in both cases.

00:37:34.000 We're still awaiting the Inspector General report on the origins of the Trump-Russia probe.

00:37:37.000 And we're going to have to see whether the Biden thing was caught up in a generalized corruption investigation by the administration, or whether it was just a political attempt to target Biden that was sort of papered over with the facade of concern about corruption.

00:37:52.000 The new subpoenas were issued by the Democrat-controlled House Intelligence Committee, and they follow similar demands for documents from the State Department and the White House made in recent days.

00:37:59.000 But those were not actually subpoenas, as I was pointing out.

00:38:02.000 Subpoenas come with legal consequences.

00:38:04.000 These do not.

00:38:05.000 They gave the agencies until October 15th to hand over notes, memos, and communications and communications related to the aid deliberation over its delivery within the government and possible conversations with Ukrainian officials about it.

00:38:19.000 Democrats leading the impeachment inquiry suspect that obviously military aid was withheld in order to pressure Joe Biden.

00:38:25.000 The Defense Department had been anticipating the subpoena last week.

00:38:28.000 The Pentagon's General Counsel directed all department heads to collect and turn in all documents and material related to military aid to Ukraine.

00:38:34.000 So once again, this doesn't look like an act of obstruction.

00:38:37.000 One of the funny things about this particular impeachment inquiry is that it's actually a lot easier to prove a cover-up than it is to prove a crime.

00:38:44.000 Take Watergate for example.

00:38:45.000 There still is not solid evidence that President Nixon explicitly ordered anyone to go break into the Watergate Hotel.

00:38:51.000 There is explicit evidence that he ordered the cover-up.

00:38:54.000 It's easier to prove the cover-up because there are a lot more people involved in the cover-up than the crime.

00:38:58.000 Usually gonna use a go-between for the crime anyway.

00:39:00.000 Okay, well in this particular case if there's no cover-up, how do you prove the crime?

00:39:04.000 Particularly because you have to show intent.

00:39:06.000 It's not just enough to show that President Trump set up a quid pro quo with regard to corruption because Joe Biden did that.

00:39:14.000 You actually have to show that his intent was to get Biden and not to target corruption at all.

00:39:20.000 Rudy Giuliani, meanwhile, says that he is thinking of suing Adam Schiff.

00:39:25.000 He said he's working with outside lawyers to prepare lawsuits against Schiff as well as Representative Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.

00:39:31.000 He said that those legal plans were made over the weekend in a series of calls with Yahoo News amid cable news appearances in which he aggressively defended President Trump.

00:39:40.000 Apparently Giuliani has dismissed at least one critic of such a lawsuit as a nitwit, arguing there are no constitutional constraints on bringing such litigation against sitting members of Congress.

00:39:50.000 He says that Schiff is seeking to inhibit me in my ability to defend Trump by criticizing him.

00:39:56.000 He says that they are attempting to deprive him of civil rights and engaging in a conspiracy to remove the president at all costs.

00:40:01.000 I'm not sure that's suable, even if it is troubling.

00:40:04.000 And even if you agree with the characterization, not everything that is troubling is suable.

00:40:07.000 Okay, meanwhile, in the 2020 race, Joe Biden is all but dead.

00:40:11.000 Elizabeth Warren has now taken a narrow lead over Joe Biden in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, according to a new October IBD Investor Business Daily TIPP poll. 0.55

00:40:20.000 Both candidates continue to lead in head-to-head matchups against Trump.

00:40:23.000 Although Biden has a more comfortable lead, Warren is only leading very narrowly, according to this polling data.

00:40:31.000 The poll shows Warren at 27 and Biden at 26, but he has been sliding quickly.

00:40:35.000 He is now second in the vast majority of the new polls.

00:40:38.000 Bernie Sanders has completely fallen out of the race.

00:40:40.000 He is all the way down at 10%.

00:40:42.000 The heart attack, obviously, is not going to help.

00:40:44.000 His support will probably kick over to Elizabeth Warren. 0.78

00:40:48.000 Joe Biden is lagging in fundraising as well.

00:40:50.000 In the third quarter, Biden raised only $15.2 million, while Warren raised $25, as did Bernie Sanders.

00:40:57.000 The October IBD-TIPP poll found Warren edging Trump by just two points, 48 to 46.

00:41:01.000 That was even slimmer than her lead in September.

00:41:05.000 So, while Elizabeth Warren will be a competitive nominee, it is certainly no foregone conclusion that she will beat President Trump.

00:41:12.000 The fact is, President Trump is an expert at dragging people through the mud.

00:41:15.000 It is his thing.

00:41:16.000 He is great at it.

00:41:18.000 And Elizabeth Warren is ripe for the picking, not only on the Pocahontas kind of stuff, but also because she's kind of dishonest about her own policies. 1.00

00:41:25.000 I mean, I've talked about this on the show.

00:41:26.000 Elizabeth Warren used to be an interesting human, and now she's a full-scale Bernie-ite progressive who refuses to answer straight questions about whether she's going to raise your taxes. 1.00

00:41:36.000 Trump should have a lot of material to work with.

00:41:38.000 He really should.

00:41:40.000 A lot of politics is about expectation versus reality.

00:41:44.000 The expectation for President Trump and the reality of President Trump are identical.

00:41:48.000 Nobody has expectations that have not been met.

00:41:50.000 If you believe that President Trump is a godsend, then your expectations meet your reality.

00:41:54.000 And if you believe that President Trump is the worst president ever, your expectations meet your reality.

00:41:58.000 And if you're somewhere in the middle, your expectations meet your reality.

00:42:01.000 Because Trump can fulfill all those conditions for you.

00:42:03.000 There is nothing hidden about the man.

00:42:04.000 Everything is out on the surface. 0.99

00:42:06.000 However, If Elizabeth Warren is perceived as an anti-corruption fighter, if she is pure as the driven snow, if the hem of her skirt has never been muddied, President Trump is a mud monster.

00:42:18.000 He embraces other candidates and they walk away covered in mud.

00:42:22.000 That is what President Trump does best.

00:42:23.000 So, if Elizabeth Warren is riding at 48% right now, and Trump is riding at 46% in that poll, Elizabeth Warren might actually be in some trouble. 0.80

00:42:31.000 Because again, she has not had one iota of negative press attention since that ridiculous DNA test that she took at the beginning of this year.

00:42:38.000 Since then, it has been nothing but glowing reports written by her sycophants in the media who are carrying around drool cups for her.

00:42:45.000 I mean, they are literally drooling into cups over Elizabeth Warren. 1.00

00:42:48.000 It's insane.

00:42:50.000 And so Joe Biden, he's been trashed.

00:42:54.000 This lends credence to all the folks who have been claiming that President Trump and the Ukraine stuff, it's all about taking down Joe Biden so that he can run against Elizabeth Warren again. 0.99

00:43:01.000 I think that accident and stupidity is much more a motivating force in human affairs than is detailed planning.

00:43:08.000 But I guess if you want to make the case, like some folks do, that Trump 40 chested this thing out and that he was talking with Ukraine because he knew that Ukraine was eventually going to spill its beans and that eventually all this was going to come out and it would sink Joe Biden, I guess you can make that case. 0.98

00:43:21.000 Although the reality is, of course, that Joe Biden was sliding in the polls at least a month and a half, two months ago.

00:43:27.000 So the Ukraine thing is just the final nail in his political coffin.

00:43:31.000 This new poll, by the way, shows that Warren has now displaced Sanders as the candidate of the far left.

00:43:36.000 She now has the support of 38% of self-described liberals.

00:43:40.000 Among Democrats, Biden is at 14%.

00:43:43.000 Among white voters, Warren is ahead of Biden 33 to 20.

00:43:46.000 Biden is still ahead 44 to 16 among black and Hispanic voters.

00:43:49.000 But that could obviously change over time.

00:43:52.000 Among Democratic investors, 31% backed Elizabeth Warren versus 23% for Joe Biden, which just goes to show you that a lot of Democrats who invest their money apparently care about their money a lot less than they care about politics.

00:44:04.000 So I guess good for them.

00:44:05.000 I guess they're putting their money where their mouth is.

00:44:06.000 They're also putting your money where their mouth is, which is far less exciting.

00:44:11.000 Now, one wrinkle that may throw a serious wrinkle into the next election cycle is this new story that Justice Clarence Thomas is absent due to illness from the Supreme Court.

00:44:24.000 Obviously, the justices of the Supreme Court are getting up there in terms of age.

00:44:29.000 There are some of them that are really getting up there.

00:44:31.000 Ruth Bader Ginsburg, of course, is 86 years old.

00:44:34.000 If, God forbid, something were to happen to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Then, presumably, I mean, it would just throw a wrench, like a massive wrench, into the 2020 election campaign. 0.86

00:44:45.000 If Justice Scalia had not died in 2016, there's a good shot Trump doesn't win that election.

00:44:49.000 Clarence Thomas is only 71 years old, but he is sick to start the term.

00:44:54.000 Stephen Breyer is 81 years old, which everybody is ignoring.

00:44:59.000 He's been on the court since 1994.

00:45:02.000 Everybody else is a lot younger, so those would be the three to keep your eye on in terms of health issues, maybe.

00:45:07.000 Although 71 is still pretty young, right?

00:45:09.000 It's younger than President Trump.

00:45:10.000 Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 86 and Stephen Breyer in 81, both liberal justices.

00:45:14.000 If something were to happen to either one of them, that would change the dynamics in the race extraordinarily.

00:45:20.000 Extraordinarily.

00:45:22.000 Radically.

00:45:23.000 Because everybody is focused in on the Supreme Court and its future constituency.

00:45:28.000 So, we'll get to more of that a little bit, probably tomorrow, and maybe a little bit later on today's show, on the radio show.

00:45:34.000 We'll get into the Supreme Court cases that are coming up.

00:45:37.000 Okay, time for a thing I like and then time for some things that I hate.

00:45:40.000 So, things that I like today.

00:45:42.000 So, today is Yom Kippur.

00:45:44.000 Tonight marks Yom Kippur. 0.95

00:45:45.000 It's actually my first time doing Yom Kippur in Israel.

00:45:47.000 I've heard that it's amazing.

00:45:48.000 The entire country shuts down to Colton's great horror and shock because Colton will not be able... It's like Christmas Day in the United States where you can't actually go out to a Rite Aid and just buy anything.

00:45:58.000 Everything's shut down.

00:45:59.000 Except that no cars run.

00:46:01.000 Everybody is in synagogue.

00:46:03.000 So congratulations, Colton.

00:46:04.000 You came on your day, my friend.

00:46:08.000 Yom Kippur is an amazing holiday.

00:46:09.000 It's a wonderful opportunity to really sort of reconsider.

00:46:15.000 Yom Kippur is a day where everything basically shuts down throughout Israel.

00:46:18.000 There are no cars.

00:46:19.000 There's no electronics, effectively speaking.

00:46:22.000 It is the day of atonement.

00:46:23.000 It is the day when everybody is supposed to pour out their sins before God, and they're supposed to engage in teshuvah, tefillah, and tzedakah.

00:46:31.000 That would be repentance, and prayer, and charity giving, and it's Frankly, it's a pretty amazing thing.

00:46:39.000 Spiritually speaking, it's a pretty amazing thing.

00:46:41.000 The opportunity, the kindness of, if you're a believer in God, the kindness of a God who will forgive your sins is an incredible thing.

00:46:50.000 I think people get the wrong impression of Judaism and forgiveness.

00:46:52.000 Like, we were big on this for a long time before the other major world religions were out there on it.

00:46:57.000 So, Yom Kippur, it's a pretty special day.

00:46:59.000 Okay, time for a quick thing that I hate. 1.00

00:47:05.000 Okay, so stupid piece of the day. 0.99

00:47:06.000 David Leonhardt said, the rich really do pay lower taxes than you. 1.00

00:47:10.000 Yeah, dude.

00:47:11.000 No.

00:47:12.000 No, they do not. 1.00

00:47:13.000 That is called stupid. 1.00

00:47:16.000 So he says that this is because they are paying lower effective tax rates than other groups because they're paying lower rates in terms of because they have capital gains and many other groups do not have capital gains. 1.00

00:47:28.000 Okay, yes.

00:47:29.000 And then in terms of the income tax, they're paying exorbitantly more than anybody else.

00:47:33.000 I love that David Leonhardy says the overall tax rate on the richest 400 households last year was only 23%.

00:47:39.000 Yes, because the richest 400 households are basically sitting on earned interest.

00:47:43.000 And they're sitting on investment.

00:47:46.000 Then there are a lot of people inside the 1%, which is a lot bigger than 400 households, who are paying insane, insane income tax.

00:47:53.000 Effective income tax rates in some states like California, if you combine the federal income tax rate and the effective income tax rate in the state of California, and then you include things like sales tax and property tax, people are paying over 50% of what they make to the federal and state government.

00:48:07.000 That's not happening at the lower end of the tax bracket.

00:48:09.000 But David Leonhardt, I mean, talk about lying with statistics.

00:48:12.000 The overall tax rate on the richest 400 households last year was only 23%, meaning that their combined tax payments equaled less than one quarter of their total income.

00:48:20.000 This overall rate was 70% in 1950 and 47% in 1980.

00:48:24.000 Yes, and people paid the same effective tax rate because they engaged in what we call tax avoidance.

00:48:29.000 For middle class and poor families, the picture is different.

00:48:32.000 Federal income taxes have declined modestly for these families over the years, but they haven't benefited much, if at all, from the decline in corporate tax or estate tax.

00:48:39.000 Yes, because if you're poor, you don't have that much to hand on in estate tax.

00:48:44.000 And you also don't own a corporation, so you also don't make money in corporate tax.

00:48:48.000 Like, yes, that's true, but you are probably engaged by a corporation, and probably the people who hired you, who already paid tax, by the way, on the money that they want to hand on to their kids, They're the ones who are paying you.

00:49:03.000 The estate tax, by the way, is utterly immoral.

00:49:04.000 It's immoral on every level.

00:49:05.000 I earn money over the course of my life and I pay taxes all the way along.

00:49:08.000 Every dollar I own, I have paid taxes on.

00:49:11.000 One of the goals of me earning money is to pass it on to my kids. 0.97

00:49:13.000 The government grave-robbing me by coming in and grabbing my money after I am dead because they believe that they have a right to my money a second time over is complete abject moral crap. 0.97

00:49:23.000 But this kind of stuff is absolute nonsense. 0.98

00:49:26.000 Here's the actual statistic.

00:49:27.000 The top 20% of Americans, as of 2018, pay 87% of all income tax in the country.

00:49:34.000 Households with $150,000 or more in income make up about 52% of total income nationally, but pay 87% of the total income tax.

00:49:41.000 So stop lying about the progressiveness of the American income tax.

00:49:44.000 It's just a lie. 0.90

00:49:45.000 It's just a bunch of nonsense. 0.97

00:49:46.000 Okay.

00:49:47.000 We'll be back here later today with a couple of additional hours.

00:49:49.000 Otherwise, we'll see you after Yom Kippur, after the atonement is done. 0.93

00:49:52.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:49:53.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

00:49:58.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is produced by Robert Sterling.

00:50:01.000 Directed by Mike Joyner.

00:50:02.000 Executive producer, Jeremy Boring.

00:50:05.000 Senior producer, Jonathan Hay.

00:50:06.000 Our supervising producer is Mathis Glover.

00:50:09.000 And our technical producer is Austin Stevens.

00:50:11.000 Assistant director, Pavel Wydowski.

00:50:13.000 Edited by Adam Sievent.

00:50:15.000 Audio is mixed by Mike Koromina.

00:50:16.000 Hair and makeup is by Jesua Olvera.

00:50:18.000 Production assistant, Nick Sheehan.

00:50:20.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is a Daily Wire production.

00:50:22.000 Copyright Daily Wire 2019.

The Ben Shapiro Show - October 08, 2019

Turkish Non-Delight | Ep. 875

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